Lives in pieces

One of the first things you notice as you walk into Mexico Beach is the stillness.

No wind, almost no-one on the street, just the beating hot sun and the debris: debris everywhere, tossed and scattered – the calling card of a monstrous storm.

And then you hear faint bleeping sounds coming from all directions – a dissonant symphony of high-pitched notes that turn out to be myriad small alarms, still transmitting their warnings from the batteries which power them.

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Much of the damage in Mexico Beach, Florida was caused by the over-100mph winds.

On the left, as we walk, there’s a mattress slumped at the roadside, on the right a Dean Koontz novel lies in the dirt.

Picking our way through a mass of rubble and detritus that was once a house, we spot an American flag on the ground; in amongst it all there is also a toy car and a cracked glass plate from a microwave.

A little further on, and a woman, accompanied by a friend, is sifting through the remains of her home, loading what she can salvage into the boot of a car. This was her dream retirement place she tells me – the last four years spent doing it up. “I’ll never step back in there,” she says through her tears.

The sheer force of Hurricane Michael has been well analysed, but it’s only when you see the everyday stuff of people’s lives crushed, broken, smashed to pieces, that you realise they will be living with this long after we have gone.

One weeping resident of Mexico Beach pictured on CNN struggled to even find her street, let alone her home.

Tom Bailey, the town’s former mayor, told the New York Times: “The mother of all bombs doesn’t do any more damage than this.”

Some 285 people in the community – population 1,000 – defied a mandatory evacuation order and stayed behind to ride out the storm.

Linda Marquardt, 67, who hunkered down with her husband, told AP news agency: “All of my furniture was floating.

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption A Mexico Beach home knocked from its foundations

“A river just started coming down the road. It was awful, and now there’s just nothing left.”

“For everyone thinking they can ride this storm out, I have news for you: that will be one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your life.” Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin ahead of Hurricane Gustav, 2008

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Are you in the area? If you’ve been affected by Hurricane Michael and it’s safe to share your experiences, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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